Summary

Cell movement and migration seem to play an important role in the formation of tissue-patterns during embryogenesis. Phenomena such as the appearance of loosely attached cells in the mesoderm, or of the freely migrating neural crest cells, are quite common in embryonic development. Since the tissues of adult organs are mostly rather compact in structure it seems that the capacity of isolated or loosely arranged cells to reassociate is an obligatory condition for many developmental processes. This capacity, under experimental conditions, was extensively studied by Holtfreter (1947, 1948). He has shown that cells of newt blastulae and early gastrulae can be made to dissociate and can then become reaggregated and proceed with their morphogenetic development. His experiments were carried out, for the most part, either with cells prior to histogenetic determination or with determined cells of a single tissue.

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